World War Genealogy, military family historian Graham Caldwell’s new paid research service, has been established to help to reconstruct, as far as possible, WWI soldiers’ lost service records.
The predicament of lost records applies to approximately 65% of the soldiers who fought in the British Army in WW1, due to the destruction of 4 million such service records in 1940 by fire.
Graham uses a wide range of secondary sources, and notably tactically researches the neighbouring service numbers of other soldiers, to glean clues about units, dates and locations for a soldier whose records are lost. For an example of how his tactics work in practice, see the Q&A pages this issue.
Graham Caldwell says of his research service that it’s “aimed at descendants who have met a brick wall, because their WWI ancestor file hasn’t survived. This is a speciality of mine, honed over many years, using a multitude of secondary sources, many of which are not online”. To contact Graham, please email gljcaldwell@ozemail.com.au